In this timely book, Peter van der Veer explores the complex relation of religion and politics in India as well as the nature of the conflict between religious communities. Drawing on historical research, recent scholarly studies, and the author’s own fieldwork, this broadly interpretive work describes the historical construction of Hindu and Muslim identities in the colonial and postcolonial periods, focusing especially on the rise of separatist nationalism. "The author takes issue with the view that religious nationalism is entirely a product of India’s colonial past, as well as with those who characterize religious attachments as ideological smoke-screens for underlying class conflict. Instead, he argues that religious identities are not ‘primordial attachments’, inculcated by tradition, but products of changing identities spread by institutionalized devotionalism and shaped over time by pilgrimage, migration, and more recently, by print and visual media. According to van der Veer, the language of religious nationalism in India–whether Hindu, Muslim, or Sikh–is crucial in that it brings together discourse on the religious community and discourse on the nation. "Van der Veer’s insightful analysis ranges across a variety of topics, including cow protection societies and Sufi tombs, purdah and the political appropriation of images of the female body, Salman Rushdie and the role of the novel in nationalism, Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda, the Khalsa movement among Sikhs, and nationalist archaeology and the televised Ramayana. "Van der Veer offers a new perspective on the importance of religious organization and the role of ritual in the formation of nationalism. His work advances our understanding of contemporary India while also offering significant theoretical insights into one of the most critical issues facing the world today.
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